THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said he has mandated the administrator in the Division of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport to pay all outstanding salaries owed to the island’s Cepep workers by Friday. He said he was informed by the accountant that the money was transferred to the division to pay the workers.
At the post Executive Council media briefing on Wednesday, Augustine described the issue as “vexing,” noting the workers have not been paid since December.
He said on assuming office after the THA election on December 6, 2021, the division had asked the executive council to approve some funds to pay outstanding salaries to the Cepep workers.
Augustine, who is also the Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy, said the executive approved the funds “in quite a haste thinking that that would bring the workers’ salaries up-to-date."
He added, "What transpired after is that after they received that one fortnight’s salary, that was when we were told by the public servants in the division that we were outstanding to the Cepep workers three fortnights.”
Augustine refused blame for the scenario, saying as finance secretary he ensured that the necessary warrants had been signed and the money transferred to facilitate the payments. Augustine said he received notice that money for one of the outstanding fortnights was paid this week.
Augustine also expressed concern over the hiring of 100 new workers in the Cepep programme just before the December 6, 2021 THA election, noting this also contributed to the delay in the payment of the outstanding salaries. Augustine said the Cepep budget for the fiscal year is not enough to meet its recurrent expenditure.
“That was an executive council decision. Of course, those decisions, taken on the cusp of the election, were financial decisions taken without any due diligence about where the monies will come from to meet the shortfall.
“But notwithstanding, the folks are there and they are working and it is our job to pay them for the period that they worked.”
Augustine said, “So today, I had cause to write the administrator for that division – and I apologise to the administrator if my tone in that letter was pretty sharp, but it needed to be. I, upon advice from the executive council, instructed the administrator of that division that they need to pay the workers all of their outstanding salaries by Friday of this week as a matter of instruction from the executive council.”
He added, “No ifs. No buts. No maybes. But the instruction from the executive council is that the division must honour the salary commitment to these workers and do so by Friday. They must get all their outstanding salaries because all the necessary funding has been transferred to the division to make that a reality.”
Augustine told reporters he was upset that people who receive small wages are usually the ones who have problems to receive their earnings. “It is symptomatic of a larger issue within the public sector, how we operate and our readiness to do business.”
